Troubleshooting - what if my horse refuses to use the hay net?Updated 7 months ago
- Firstly, NEVER introduce your GutzBusta® to a hungry horse without having some loose hay around first then allow your horse to wander over and check out his new hay net. This will put him in a more exploratory mood instead of a ravenous / destructive one.
- Put palatable hay inside your hay net so that your horse will be keen to try and eat through the net. If you use boring and low palatable hay for first time use then your horse may lose inspiration and not want to try to eat the hay through the net, particularly the 3cm size netting.
- Did you go too small too quick?? If you start with the 3cm holed hay nets first up and your horse hasn't eaten from slow feeders before, then you may have over faced your horse and he has simply given up. Try purchasing a 4cm to train your horse to eat from a slow feed hay net, or put more palatable hay in the 3cm to give your horse some inspiration to try.
- EVERY horse is different and how they respond to a hay net is very much individual. Some take a little longer to 'learn' how to eat from a net, most take to it within a few hours or even instantly.
- The palatability of the hay has a big factor. If your hay is low in sugar and the horses are barely interested in eating from it, then do NOT buy the 3cm first up. In this case, the 4cm or even 6cm would be the better option.
- Time of year can also have a factor. For example, we made some low sugar and quite course hay in 2016. It, therefore, wasn't that wonderfully palatable. To get them to eat it, I had to start with 6cm, then as they got used to it, they would then eat it in 4cm nets, then when it was summer, some of them would even eat it from 3cm. Once it was Winter again, they only reluctantly ate it from 4cm and ate it well from a 6cm.
- Also, if your horse is a REALLY piggy eater, then you should investigate whether your horse has stomach ulcers or not? As 70-80% of horses are reported to have ulcers, it is quite likely. The only way to ease the burning in their stomach is to keep eating. Otherwise when they finish eating the horses stomach only takes 20-30 mins to empty at which time HCl is produced which begins to burn the ulcers again.